Successes or failures of collecting at the "wrong" time of the year

Joe Dupre'

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Just curious what results people have had when they collected trees, either through nessecity or preference, at the "wrong" time of the year. "Wrong", being what is normally considered too early or too late by the majority of bonsai and other plant enthusiasts. The infamous "they say you shouldn't..........." pronouncements.

I collected a Bald Cypress 3 months after the normal peak collecting period. It sprouted out and was growing normally in about the customary time frame. Now, it did get borers and eventually faded away, so I don't know if the cause was early collection. I collected a couple of thumb sized camphor trees this year about 2 months past peak time and they are alive and doing nicely.
 

Forsoothe!

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My experience is that the after care is more important than the exactly when. I wet the whole thing down, dust the roots with hormone dust, bag the roots, bag the whole thing in a large plastic bag and pot up one or three days later. I would include repotting with major root work in the same category. They need light, but not demanding light. For a couple days, I keep them in shade or out of direct sun (hence, no demanding heat or moisture loss greater than the leaves can handle). Then I leave them in a position of shade where they get maybe one hour or less of late western sun per day until the smallest buds (usually terminal buds) begin to grow again. (I would rather have one hour of early eastern sun, but I don't own any of that.) Naturally, this means that I leave a significant number of terminal branches unscathed, like no pruning of foliage at all on a repot. 10 days or two weeks later, they go into mostly sun.

At the other end of the scale where I collect something that is grossly branched where I don't want anything but the core of the crown and I'm not concerned if I lose the whole thing, I chop everything back to finished architecture, and foliage back to one pair, and roots to finished size. It goes through the same hormone/bagging/resting before potting and then return to sun cycle as above. This works pretty good for me. Not bullet-proof, but I'm happy.

I'm convinced that the rest period in the bag with the hormones doing their thing instead of being knocked off by the potting process is important to my success. I don't have any real science to prove it, but I'm convinced.
 

Joe Dupre'

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Forsoothe!, it looks like you have it under control. I've never used hormones with collected material. If it helps grow roots on a cutting, I suppose it would help a tree that actually has at least some roots already.
 

TN_Jim

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boxwood, crape myrtle, privet, elm with success..
aftercare for certain, don’t recommend
 

Rivian

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It might sound dumb but if you dig up the thing without disturbing any of the roots then youll have pretty much 100% success rate, at any time of year. The more roots you take off or bare root, the closer to 0 you get.
As for personal experience, I dug up a beech at the perfect time of year, but with few roots and so its been in limbo ever since. Was given a chance to collect 4 thick trunk yews in april or so, after they had started growing again from a previous drastic cut back, very bad time to collect, but with some dieback theyre all growing now because they had feeder roots close to the trunk.
 

leatherback

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I have pretty decent success. I guess it all depends on how many main roots you need to cut. But in general most plants that I work on in summer do fine afterwards, although at times they stall for the season. So the time won is marginal. Established bonsai with decent fine roots normally do not mind being repotted in season.

Note that roots know they have to grow roots. Rooting hormone does nothing.
 

Shibui

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Note that roots know they have to grow roots. Rooting hormone does nothing.
Absolutely agree with this but if others want to waste rooting hormone then I say let them. At least it appears to do no harm.

I have collected and repotted a lot of trees. I have occasionally had to do so out of normal season and have been pleasantly surprised at the survival rate. Azaleas have survived and thrived after collecting in all months of the year. Young(ish) trident maples have survived radical root prune (as an experiment) in mid spring while they are in full growth - most dropped all leaves but sprouted again a few weeks later and went on to grow normally. Many of our Australian native plants actually do far better when dug or root pruned in the warmer months, even when temps range into the low 40Cs in the days after transplant.
 

Vali

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This is only an opinion, so take it as it is. I think that the trees are tougher than we usually think. They can survive a collection as long as we don't exagerate with the root pruning. I dug up 2 lindens in november, a few days before frosty nights and they both survived. The one in my usual bonsai substrate is thriving and the one planted in the ground is ok. A leafed out burning bush I collected is doing really great. All of them were bare rooted and I cut as little roots as possible. One of the lindens is planted in a big box because of that and I am planning on putting it gradually in smaller pots. I might be wasting time, I don't know and I really don't care as long as the tree is ok. I do believe that other species might act differently. Again, this is just my humble experience.
 
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There are lots of factors. One factor is the age and size and health of the tree you are collecting. Young small healthy deciduous trees can be collected quite easily. Timing on your collection is going to be more important with older bigger stuff.

Another thing I have noted is there is the "right" time of year, and then there is some ok times, and for me there are some major no go times.
 

Joe Dupre'

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I was kinda hoping to hear from the people that had to dig a big lawn juniper , boxwood , azalea, etc. at the wrong time because the owner wanted them gone. I've seen some monster junipers dug that I would be very curious to see if they survived.
 
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I dug two HUGE Junipers from a customers lawn in early August. one survived and one died. Interestingly, the one that lived I planted directly into the ground after collection and the one that I potted in a big wooden box died.
 

sorce

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We need soil types which they are coming from.

I'll bet soil type and moon has more to do with success than anything.

Sorce
 

Rivian

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I was kinda hoping to hear from the people that had to dig a big lawn juniper , boxwood , azalea, etc. at the wrong time because the owner wanted them gone. I've seen some monster junipers dug that I would be very curious to see if they survived.
Boxwood is very tough, they can stand sitting in water for months and survive extreme cutback and a fair bit of drought. Ive treated mine very badly and theyre still alive and growing. Can be dug up whenever. About azalea, I found one that had been lying in the trash for a day, in April I guess. Separated all the branches that had produced roots and now its 20+ separate, healthy plants.
 

Shibui

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I had similar experience with azalea. A builder friend offered me 3 that needed to be removed for renovations. He delivered them on a Monday but said the concreter had come early and dug the azaleas and left them on the lawn in summer sun for the weekend.
A quick prune of tops and roots then planted and all 3 survived.
I have rescued lots of azaleas from renovation sites and garden makeovers at all times of the year and only lost a couple of them which did not seem to be related to time of year as others dug at the same time grew fine. I often split older clumps of azalea into useful looking sections right after digging them. No problem with that either.
I have not had the opportunity to dig older buxus but they appear to be tough so I suspect @Rivian is correct about any time for them too.
 

Ambientone

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I’ve had great success collecting hemlocks and firs in the summer. In fact, I just potted a bunch that were collected a few days ago and they are doing great. I always plan to lose 1 or 2, the main thing is wetting the roots and immediately getting them into a plastic bag. Then pot them as soon as possible. Someone else said the after care is important, and yes, it’s the most important part. I don’t put mine in full sun for a couple weeks. I over water for a few days, then start normal watering at least twice a day when it’s hot out.
 

Woocash

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I’ve ripped out a couple of small elms these last couple of weeks as an experiment and put them just in multi purpose compost and stood them in a dish of water so the soil is completely saturated. I don’t know how it’ll pan out as the future comes, but none of the leaves have begun to wilt yet. I figure that water uptake is always going to be the main problem so by negating the need for lots of roots in the short term may sustain them enough to start growing new ones. Fools errand?
 

Ambientone

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I’ve ripped out a couple of small elms these last couple of weeks as an experiment and put them just in multi purpose compost and stood them in a dish of water so the soil is completely saturated. I don’t know how it’ll pan out as the future comes, but none of the leaves have begun to wilt yet. I figure that water uptake is always going to be the main problem so by negating the need for lots of roots in the short term may sustain them enough to start growing new ones. Fools errand?
I think that’s pretty spot on, but you want to be careful leaving them soaked. It really takes some trial and error practice. Elms are very hardy, so you’re probably going to be fine.
 

Woocash

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Well I hope so. I collected two in the winter/spring and they’ve both died now, though I’ve had more than 90% success with all other species. One had particular promise and I’m quite disappointed so that’s why I’m experimenting a bit more now. Obviously I’ll aim for more collections in the usual time frame, but I’m just branching out a bit to see what works.

As for these the plan is to soak for a couple of weeks then remove for a day or so, soak, remove, soak and so on until autumn or until new growth appears. I’m not experimenting on “good” stock yet, just newbie fodder.
 

Ambientone

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Well I hope so. I collected two in the winter/spring and they’ve both died now, though I’ve had more than 90% success with all other species. One had particular promise and I’m quite disappointed so that’s why I’m experimenting a bit more now. Obviously I’ll aim for more collections in the usual time frame, but I’m just branching out a bit to see what works.

As for these the plan is to soak for a couple of weeks then remove for a day or so, soak, remove, soak and so on until autumn or until new growth appears. I’m not experimenting on “good” stock yet, just newbie fodder.
I think that plan of soaking is not going to work. You need to keep them wet for a few days, that’s it. You’ll be surprised how many roots you’ll have in a year.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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I did spruce and junipers in winter without failure.
Horse chestnut in spring and failed.
English oak in summer - as advised - and failed miserably eight times. In spring before bud break succeeded 3/3.
Scots pine in every season, but only the summers fail.
Larch in winter and failed.
One spruce in summer and succeeded.
Common ash in winter was a success too.
Cedrus atlantica in summer, 2/4 failed.

I think that's about it. Not everything was collected from the wild, I'm counting yard digs as well because the process is the same.
 
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